I have been finding parenting my teenage son to be a bigger challenge now than when he was younger - since he’s older, my “no” response seems to need some polishing - he is responsible, he’s a good kid and I’m very proud of him, but kids just do foolish things - all in fun - and I can’t say for sure that he isn’t one of them!
So what to do?
An example of the seriousness of this issue is driving.
I recently posted an entry at Because Mom Said So about a tragic accident that happened here involving a 16 year old boy and 3 girls.
Wouldn’t you know it, the day after I post it, my son comes home from school telling me that he was in an accident? What? He was at school???
Well, turns out he had a spare at the end of the day so he and a friend who brought her parents car and a few of his buddies went for a ride.
I didn’t specifically tell him that he had to stay at the school on spare, so he was not disobeying, but obviously, driving around with a fairly inexperienced driver with a car load of kids isn’t my idea of a good idea.
They rolled the car going around some loose gravel on a curve, it wasn’t a smash bang up roll, more like a roll and a plop, no one was hurt, the car did have some damage.
But it could have been worse.
I HATE to do it, but I told him I didn’t want him driving around when he is at school (thankfully he doesn’t drive there anymore because gas is too much) It didn’t go over well, he STILL does not see the sense of it and it is too bad that he can’t enjoy himself instead of sitting around at school waiting for the bus.
My core motto is enjoy life and make the best of every minute because it’s very fleeting and you can’t get one minute of it back once it’s gone, but you have to draw the line and weigh the consequences sometimes.
It’s the kind of thing that comes up, and I still have two girls to go. I want my MOMMY!
NOTE: I am going to be having a closer look at a report that I bought by Aurelia Williams about parenting teens, I need all the help I can get to see them safely through the next years.
the reward.
